 'Spin City' producers wanted a Heather Locklear type to stir things up. They wound up with the original. By PAUL LIEBERMAN
NEWARK, N.J. - This is the day for the cast and crew of "Spin City" to put the finishing touches on the opening episode of a new season, on a baseball field, and for the character played by the show's own rookie, Heather Locklear, to discover that she's signed on to be the campaign manager for a New York mayor who wants to be a U.S. senator but who is - at every turn - a bozo.
We begin our Socratic method - questions shall yield the truth - with the actress herself, who turned 38 Saturday, curled up in the corner of a sofa, in her trailer, perusing the Natural Baby catalog, waiting for her call. We ask what she recalls about her first trip to New York, as a fledgling model. She says, "I was 17 or 18 and had just signed with Wilhelmina. So they sent me here to do some test shoots with photographers. And they said, 'Oh, you'll be staying with some [other] models. I was like this big old grin and so excited. It was like there were three girls, maybe four girls, living in a one-bedroom apartment. It was like the inside of the building, so the windows looked on the inside of other places. I remember that at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, it was very dark and the lights had to be turned on. I just went, 'Oh my gosh.' " We find Steve Godchaux, one of the writer-producers for "Spin City," standing in left field, studying the day's script, and ask whether the show's brain trust really thought they could lure her east after Fox - who doubles as executive producer - mused last spring that his character could use "a strong antagonist" and "some sexual tension" and how "in a perfect world... you get Heather Locklear." Godchaux says, "We have yet to really have a woman on the show give Mike a run for his money, to sort of invade his turf. He rules the roost in the office. We actually didn't think we could get her - she's sort of the California dream date. But, hey, her husband's from New Jersey." We ask Locklear whether it's true she had her first real get-together with that Jersey boy, rock guitarist Richie Sambora, not in L.A. but in these parts - at the Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue, to be exact - after her divorce from another rocker, Tommy Lee, who went on (of course) to wed that beach-blanket version of the California dream date, Pamela Anderson. She says, "That was during maybe the second season I was on 'Melrose Place' that we got together here, at the Waldorf. I was at the Rihga Royal, and he tried to get me to come over many times, to meet at his room. I'd go, 'No, why don't we meet here?' "He told me to meet him in the [Waldorf] bar - and there was no bar. So he said, 'Come up, I've got something for you.' He had beautiful long-stemmed roses and we had some champagne and we talked a little bit and he watched a basketball game and I didn't have a lot to say, and he had a lot more to say, and a little bit of kissing and then, 'I've got to go home.' So he took me home in a taxi, to my hotel, and I left the next day with my roses. Then he didn't call for a couple of weeks, so I left a message thanking him for a nice evening and that if he didn't come out [to Los Angeles], I'd forget what he looked like. So he came out. "Now, every time I go in a taxi and pass the Waldorf, I go, 'Oh, that's a familiar place.' " We ask Fox how he first met the lady, fully realizing that - comedian that he is - he's polished the story into a routine by now. He says, "My wife and I were at a function a few years ago, the Golden Globe Awards. I was nominated and Heather was nominated and she was at our table. And I mean it was practically in the parking lot it was so far from the stage. So we kind of looked at each other and said, 'We're not winning anything tonight. They don't have the air time to cover us getting down to the stage.' "As it turned out, Kathy Bates, who was also at our table, wound up winning. We were wrong. It was just us that wasn't going to win." We ask another writer-producer for "Spin City," Tom Hertz, a wisecracking veteran of "Dennis Miller Live," how long they'll wait before letting the romantic sparks fly between Fox's character and Locklear's brainy and cunning campaign manager, who will be guiding Mayor Winston's Senate race (coincidence, coincidence) just as New York's real mayor, Rudy Giuliani, is likely to be seeking the same office. Hertz says, "There are 26 episodes. I guess somewhere in the second half of the season. Her behaving as she did on 'Melrose Place' won't work here. 'I'll crush you! I'm powerful!' But for Mike to be trying his hardest, as he has for three years against foes, and for her to say, 'That's so cute! Now could you go away?' Or, 'You're adorable the way you bicker at me!' The audience here just loves that. "So far we haven't done any stories focusing on her boyfriends or past boyfriends. I guess we will as they become a little flirty. For City Hall, it might be interesting if she comes in looking like she hasn't been home that night, or has mascara running - a 'Sex and the City' kind of character working in City Hall, who can have fun and be wild during the night and pull herself together and be a politician during the day. The sex just has to be funny. In 'Melrose Place,' it was a way for one character to get back at another. Here, if she slept with someone to get back at Mike, I don't think that would be sitcom funny. In comedy, I guess being bad at sex is funny or a lot of sex is funny. Being caught doing sex in public is funny. "But it all has to be pretty professional, since this is City Hall. Unless they have an S&M day. Maybe during sweeps, a wet T-shirt night at City Hall. That could be a big ratings grabber. "There is a lot of pressure on us. Because every script we write, we have to go in knowing that millions and millions of 'T.J. Hooker' fans will be watching." We ask Locklear whether she realizes that, under the proven formula of sitcoms, her relationship with Fox will have to be all flirt, with absolutely no "Melrose"-style under-the-sheets (or atop-the-desk) finality, at least if they hope to duplicate the success of Sam and Diane on "Cheers" and avoid the downturn of "Moonlighting," say, after Bruce Willis got too familiar with Cybill Shepherd. She says, "It's more interesting that way. I think it lasts longer when the tension is always there. Once you consummate the relationship, there's nothing left to look forward to. Remember when Rhoda got married? She ran through the streets in her wedding dress and finally got married, and then..." Still, the wardrobe folks roaming the sets of "Spin City" are the same ones who do HBO's "Sex and the City," Patricia and Rebecca Field, so we ask the two women - who have trendy shops in SoHo and Greenwich Village - whether they, in fact, will dare scrap Locklear's traditional California-vixen garb for something more... New York. Patricia Field says, "I hear that question quite a bit, 'What will Heather be wearing?' From fans. I think people are anticipating a new look for Heather. "In general, my philosophy is that it's a triangle: You have an actress, you have a character and you have a wardrobe. We want to deal with Heather as a person and an image and combine that with her character, who is a highly paid campaign strategist. "That means: Keep her clean and simple, expensive, with a little bit of a rock edge, and let's say sophisticated. In real terms, it means she'll be wearing Gucci, possibly some Dior. Her accessories are Hermes and Chanel. Hemlines? New York hemlines. Knee length. She's wearing pants also. No ornamentation, as in lace or ruffles. She wears classic colors. She wears black, white and creams. She wears red. "The rock edge, I think that's in the natural Heather Locklear. She might wear a black leather fitted jacket." Speaking of jackets, we ask one of the two security guys shadowing Locklear around the location shoot what he told her when she suggested that, in this fine weather, he didn't have to wear that brown sports coat over his tank-like frame. The security guy says, "I told her I need it to cover the big ugly gun on my hip." We ask Locklear whether it's true she didn't play hard to get when they started trying to lure her out here, even though she had declared in the past how well she fit into the L.A. scene, where she was close to her parents and could take a run without anyone following her, just another blond on the Strand. She says, "About nine months ago, when 'Melrose Place' was winding down, I thought, 'Wouldn't it be fun to go to New York, they're filming more in New York.' I thought, 'Well, you know what, if it was 20 years from now, when my [2-year-old] baby was all grown up, or 10 years earlier, before I was married with a child, it would be feasible. OK, that's that, that's my life.' "So when this came up, my manager said, 'I know you won't do it. You know, because you'd have to live in New York.' I go, 'I'll do it.' "I don't know if they thought they had to talk me into it. Michael did say, 'You know, I lived in L.A. and my wife is from here, and once I got here I never wanted to leave. You're going to love it. You'll love it.' The director told me, 'You'll be here in the middle of November and you'll find yourself walking through the park and the leaves will be changing and you'll feel the cool air and it's very magical.' I said, 'OK.' " Veteran comedian Nipsey Russell is on the set, playing himself as a participant in the celebrity golf tournament who has been paired with Bostwick and thus has to endure the mayor's Clinton-like approach to the game, so we (and a crowd of extras) invite him to offer a few golf cheating jokes of his own. Russell says, "Last week I shot a 63." "Yeah, at bowling." "I set a distance record, too." "Yeah, throwing your club." We ask Fox whether - since he successfully talked her into coming - he's given his new co-star any practical advice on life in New York. He says, "I've more than anything kind of reveled in her naivete, and kind of teased her about it. You know, 'I'm in the Village and have to be in Central Park in 10 minutes - how do I walk there?' 'Well, here's the thing - you don't.'" "The West Side Highway is on what side of Manhattan?' 'The WEST side, Heather.'" "She went shopping at Barneys and was walking through the park with all her bags and some cops pulled up beside her, and she thought she might be in trouble, a shoplifting suspect. But they ended up offering her a ride. She thought New York is great - cops give you a ride. "I said, 'It may have had something to do with the fact that you're Heather Locklear.' " We figure the poor woman deserves a chance to defend herself against these routines, so we ask whether she's already developed her own roster of life-in-the-city tales since she and husband Sambora, along with their daughter, Ava, settled in the apartment she found in August on the Upper East Side, not far from Fox's place. She says, "I came out on a red-eye [flight] and was here for maybe 10 hours and looked at some places and they ranged from the most ridiculous price to still a ridiculous price. I got a beautiful place, but I had to take away from my daughter's college fund. There were enough rooms and it felt a little bit like California. There was a lot of air, a lot of light. It's prewar and got those moldings and door jams. It's pretty cool. Hardwood floors. "We had to go through the [building] committee. They get your financial statement or something and decide if they want you there or not. We found out that my husband's first agent lives in the building. "I was off one week and I had a girlfriend in and we did a bunch of stuff. Just went to see 'Chicago,' went to dinners, went on one of those [Central Park] horse-and-buggy rides with the baby. The driver kind of turned to me and said, 'Oh, you kind of look like Heather, Heather Locklear.' 'Oh, thank you! What a compliment.'" "So he just kept riding until my friend said, 'Oh, Heather.' Then he looked at me again. "For the week with my girlfriend, I was so busy doing stuff, then I went, 'I want to go home. I miss my mom and dad. I miss my area and the open space.' But I got through that bump, that tiny bump. I was missing my parents most." We ask whether she misses her dogs, too, two Malteses, and whether she considered bringing them east. She says, "For one second. It's not grass here. I see the dog walkers - this one woman had five golden retrievers. I thought, 'If my dogs were here, they'd be nipping and barking.'" "The dogs are staying with a friend. I can go back every fourth week I have off. They're really happy now. These people walk them every day and sleep with them at night." We ask Fox whether she should have brought the dogs. He says, "We have dogs. She can't have big ones here. But if she has the little yippy-yappy kind, she should have brought 'em." * "Spin City" airs at 8 p.m. Tuesdays on ABC.
Paul Lieberman is a Times Staff Writer |